2025-11-23 - 2025-11-27
Arthur Christianen
ETH Zürich
One of the central challenges in physics is to understand how complex many-body phenomena emerge from simple microscopic interactions. Ultracold gases provide a unique platform to tackle this problem: they realize systems with a microscopic Hamiltonian that is not only precisely known but even controllable. This enables us to explore the emergence of collective behavior from the bottom up.
In this lecture series, I will develop this bottom-up perspective on ultracold gases. I will begin with an introduction to the relevant atomic physics concepts, focusing on the fundamental two- and three-body scattering properties of cold atoms. From there, I will show how few- and many-body physics meet in ultracold mixtures, highlighting both theoretical approaches and experimental techniques. Finally, I will discuss the exciting recent progress in moving from ultracold atoms to ultracold molecules, outlining the new opportunities and challenges that arise. Throughout, I will emphasize connections to broader themes in quantum many-body physics across disciplines.
